The 2023 Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples Lecture, part of the UOxEJ event series, will feature Jen Rose Smith, an assistant professor of geography and American Indian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The lecture will take place May 2 at 7 p.m. at the Many Nations Longhouse at the University of Oregon.

Smith's lecture builds from her current book project focusing on Alaska and the Arctic. Called “Icy Matters: Race, Indigeneity, and Coloniality in Ice-Geographies,” the book lies at the intersection of Native studies, cultural human geography and environmental humanities.

Her keynote lecture will feature student respondents and dialogue. The visiting students include: Wesley Carrasco, an Indigenous Lenca doctoral student in geography at the University of Washington; Luis Gonzalez-Quizhpe, a Kichwa Saraguro master's student in Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Kristin Klingman, a member of the Lac Vieux Desert Band in what is currently known as Watersmeet, Michigan, and a graduate student in human ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mark Carey, co-organizer of the Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples Lecture, and a UO professor of environmental studies and geography, said that “Jen Rose Smith and her graduate students are crucial voices to understand environmental justice and to reframe the way we talk about climate change, the Arctic and Indigenous communities living daily with both climate injustices and colonial legacies.”

Funding for the lecture comes from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through the Pacific Northwest Just Futures Institute for Racial and Climate Justice. Additional information and co-sponsors can be found on the Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples website.